TENS LIST
TEN PEOPLE I WISH I’D KNOWN
I wish it was possible to have a week-long retreat with the people I wish I’d known all converging for deep discussions, fun and comradery. The outside world would be shut out, except for the exotic location we’d choose for the retreat; possibly a tropical island filled with palm trees, gentle breezes and ocean views.I’d want these people, some of whom are living and some who have passed on, to be there:
The 14th Dalai Lama: I’d like to know about the night he left Tibet as the Chinese took over his country, and how he has maintained a positive attitude though he has lived in exile.
Pope Francis: I’d like to know how he has managed to lead the Catholic Church into the 21st century and revolutionize the Vatican’s stance on such topics as gays and lesbians, birth control, divorce and climate change.
Leonardo da Vinci: I’d like to know what inspired him and how he managed to excel at so many things, from sculptor to painter, architect and inventor.
Charles Dickens: I’d like to know when he decided he could shine a spotlight on social injustice through the writing of novels and how he managed to write about such disturbing things as abuse in orphanages, the inequalities of a class system, debtor’s prison and more without succumbing to hopelessness.
Daphne du Maurier: I’d like to know how she remained motivated to write such engrossing books during an age in which female writers were not taken seriously. Though her books are some of the best suspense I’ve ever read, she was branded as a romance novelist by the male publishing establishment, and it’s only been since her death that her books are considered classics.
Martin Luther King: I’d like to know how he maintained his courage when he knew he would be walking into police batons, biting dogs and hostile mobs. I’d like to know the moment in time when he decided he had to take a stand against racial injustice and the moment he knew he would have to lead the movement himself.
Nelson Mandela: I’d like to know when he decided to forgive the cruelty of prison guards and apartheid and how he cultivated compassion and faith even when he was incarcerated for so many decades.
Galileo Galilei: I’d like to know how he helped to lead the world in a scientific revolution during the Renaissance, and when he decided to speak out about the Earth revolving around the sun when he knew he could be thrown into prison or put to death for contradicting the church’s belief that the universe revolved around the Earth.
Stephen Hawking: I’d like to know how his mind works and how he manages to theorize about such revolutionary subjects as black holes and quantum mechanics.
And Neil deGrasse Tyson, whom I consider to be one of the brightest minds in the world today; not only could he engage in incredible conversations with da Vinci, Hawking and Galileo but he could offer witticisms and inject fun into otherwise dark subjects.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A Thin Slice of Heavenby p.m. terrell
BLURB:
She had arranged to meet her husband in Northern Ireland for a second honeymoon, but when Charleigh arrives at the remote castle, she receives a message that he won’t be coming—and that he’s leaving her for another woman.
Stranded for the weekend by a snowstorm that has blocked all access to the castle, she finds herself three thousand miles from home in a country she knows nothing about.
She is soon joined by Sean Bracken, the great-grandson of Laird Bracken, the original owner of the castle, and she finds herself falling quickly and madly in love with him. There’s just one problem: he’s dead.
As the castle begins to come alive with secrets from centuries past, she finds herself trapped between parallel worlds. Caught up in a mass haunting, she can no longer recognize the line between the living and the dead. Now she’s discovering that her appearance there wasn’t by accident—and her life is about to change forever.
EXCERPT
He moved closer to her until he was leaning over her, looking deeply into her eyes. She felt his presence more than she recalled feeling any living being, and yet she knew… She didn’t know what she knew, she realized. It was beyond her comprehension.
Her eyes traveled along his shirt. It appeared custom made and fit him like a glove. She reached out to stroke the fabric. It felt coarse and yet soft, as if the fibers had originally been more abrasive than modern-day clothing, but it had been worn into a suppleness like her favorite pair of slippers. Her fingers traveled along the sleeve. She felt his muscle beneath it, rippling slightly as her fingertips pressed more deeply against him. The seconds passed as she continued moving along his arm until she felt the short, fine hair on the back of his hand. Then she traveled upward once more, memorizing the contours until her palm rested across his shoulder.
He never said a word but his eyes didn’t leave hers, even when her own scrutinized the hand-sewn seam of his shirt sleeve that lay a few inches below his shoulder, or the folds of fabric in the sleeve that was just short of billowing, or the carefully constructed cuff with the slightly misshapen, handmade buttons.
When her palm reached his face and her fingers followed the line of his jaw, she asked hesitantly, “How is it that I can—?” She stopped herself. Maybe she didn’t want to know. Maybe if she knew, he would disappear and she would be left alone in this massive castle. Perhaps if he wasn’t here, the moon and the stars would seem to disintegrate as well until she was left with nothing but the inky blackness of a night that would feel too long and too painful to endure.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
p.m.terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, a multi-award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than twenty books in five genres: contemporary suspense, historical suspense, romance, computer how-to and non-fiction.Prior to writing full-time, she founded two computer companies in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. Among her clients were the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Secret Service, U.S. Information Agency, and Department of Defense. Her specialties were in white collar computer crimes and computer intelligence, themes that have carried forward to her suspense.
She is also the co-founder of The Book ‘Em Foundation, an organization committed to raising public awareness of the correlation between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She is the organizer and chairperson of Book ‘Em North Carolina, an annual event held in the real town of Lumberton, North Carolina, to raise funds to increase literacy and reduce crime. For more information on this event and the literacy campaigns funded by it, visit www.bookemnc.org.
Links:
Author’s website: www.pmterrell.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmterrell Blog: www.pmterrell.blogspot.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/author.p.m.terrell
Book Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7QYLfXSQeo
Paperback on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Slice-Heaven-p-m-terrell/dp/1935970348/
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Slice-Heaven-p-m-terrell-ebook/dp/B00VGS3ES0/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-thin-slice-of-heaven-pm-terrell/1121480920
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-thin-slice-of-heaven-pm-terrell/1121480920
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/528424
FOLLOW THE TOUR!
GIVEAWAY
p.m.terrell will be awarding a Celtic Butterfly Suncatcher similar to the one mentioned in the book, symbolizing both the never-ending cycle of life and the metamorphosis of a butterfly to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
